I rode my 700 to the Uptown Auto Meet or whatever it’s called.
The other “cars” at the show can be seen here.
K&N filter upgrade with yogurt cup modification
I bought a K&N filter for my 700. I’ve had K&N filters on all of my vehicles and never had an issue. However on the 700 its freer flowing ways make the engine run lean. Following a tip from a friend I looked for something to reduce the volume of the filter and ended up with an upside-down yogurt cup inside the cone filter. This should reduce the volume of air, increase the speed, lower the pressure, and help the fuel atomize. The yogurt cup definitely helped the performance of the K&N. Without it it barely starts and sputters and pops and won’t climb above 4grand. Once the cup is in place it will climb ok, but the exhaust still sounds “hollow” for lack of a better word and will backfire between 4500 and 5000 rpm. Once you get it past 5000 rpm it takes off and you better be holding on tight.
So I need to tweak my yogurt cup, or mebbe fiddle with the slow-speed jets…
An audio file of the exhaust note with K&N and yogurt cup installed can be heard here. The beginning of the file is at 2K rpm, the next step up is 3K, then up to 4K where you can begin to hear popping all the way up to 5K. The rev after that went straight to 8K with no resistance.
Bikes get better parking
I love the way some places have a special spot set aside for bikes. It’s almost always close to the door, but this one was also protected by bollards, had a place to chain up the bikes, a tree to provide shade (who likes hot seats?), and a sign to let ppl know this is just for motorcycles and bicycles.
Inspecting my inspections
Finally got inspected today, that was easier than the nightmare of registering it. The technician that was inspecting it kept going on and on about what a nice bike it was…I ofcourse let him go on and on 😉
Sunny Day
Unlike yesterday, it can’t rain all the time…
Working on the 700 already…but it runs again!
My new 700 died on me last Monday. I rode it to Wal-mart, no problems at all. Bought my crap, hopped on the bike, turned the key, pulled in the clutch, pushed the go button, and…NOTHING. I tried push starting it, NOTHING. Tried the button again, and VROOOOM! I started hauling ass for home and almost got there when it died on me again, this time while I was riding. The thing that caught my notice was that the RPMs went straight to zero even though I could still feel the momentum dragging the engine around. I had the wiring diagram on a PDF, but I prefer to look at it on paper. What I was looking for was whatever the tachometer and the starter had in common…
Continue reading “Working on the 700 already…but it runs again!”
My new 700S!!!
I finally got the bike I’ve always wanted. I bought it off of craigslist in San Antonio this weekend. It’s an 84 with 19K miles on it. Only a few minor cosmetic blemishes but I think it’s great. I went over to Nick’s so he could help me unload it then he drove my truck and tried to take pictures of me while I rode it home. Once we got on the freeway though between him having to shift and steer and snap pictures and try and run me off the road we finally gave up on that plan and I pulled ahead. The sad news is I only got to put about 5 miles on it before I had to prepare for my flight back to Cleveland 🙁 So what am I going to do with the 650? I’m deciding if I should paint it or not before I sell it.
Mystery Carb Part
Fuel Line
Nice day for a ride… or maybe not.
Ahh… a cool front came thru, highs only in the low 90s and humidity only around 40%, that’s not bad for September in Houston. I went to the HalfPriceBooks down in Clear Lake. Everywhere I went I was stuck in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic. 1st and 2nd gear mostly, even on the interestate. Well, the interstate is where things started to go south, even tho I was headed north. 😛 It quit revving, then it stumbled and died. I rolled off onto the shoulder and started fooling with it. I switched to reserve, but that wasn’t it. It would stumble but wouldn’t catch, if I twisted the throttle at all it wouldn’t even stumble. So I choked it and it atleast stumbled into life, but wouldn’t rev over 4 grand. If I feathered the clutch I could get it rolling without killing it so I took off down the shoulder passing all the parked cars in 2nd gear until it crapped out going up the next over pass. So monkeyed with it some more and it wouldn’t catch. I just sat there and let it cool for a few minutes and got it stumbling some more. Wandered down the shoulder passing all the same cars again until I finally got to the next off-ramp. I got it across 3 lanes of traffic going much faster than me and into a parking lot, where it died again. I rolled halfway across the parking lot, then pushed it the rest of the way so I could be in the shadow of the smallest damn tree in the world. Here I started taking things apart and noticed that the clear plastic inline fuel filter was kinda loose, so I reseated the fuel line and hose clamps on that thing. It’s kinda warped, I need to replace it and remount the whole thing really. I got that done and tried it out, and it would sorta run, a little better than before, but not as good as usual. Cathy was still on her way over so I sat back to let it cool while she showed up. Well, when she pulled in I tried it again and it was running a hell of a lot better than before, I decided to chance riding it home as it wasn’t that much further and now I’d have a car with hazard-lights behind me. I picked up my helmet from where I had set it next to the bike to work on it, and IT WAS FULL OF FIRE ANTS!!!! Grrrrr. Can’t get much worse right?
Well, I got it home, it’s in the garage, and I don’t even care to look at it right now. It’ll probably sit there until my next weekend off. I’m guessing vapor lock due to all the heat, but I need to check the fuel lines as well. Friggin ants in the helmet. ¡Qué Sheesh!
(edit)Nick is suggesting I check the coils. Dunno why I didn’t think of that myself. When it first started cutting out the first thing I did was try jiggling the plug cables as I went down the road. Once it died tho I was mostly focussed on the fuel issue. Oh well. I’ll check both then.